Sofia, November 23 (BTA) - The prosecution magistracy Friday named the two persons who have been charged with tax and financial offences in the high-profile G.P.Group case. It said in a statement that Georgi Vassilev and Vladimir Lozanov were charged on October 29 with conspiring to commit tax and financial offences for the purpose of obtaining a particularly large pecuniary benefit between early 2014 and October 7, 2018.

Vassilev also faces money laundering charges.

Vassilev and Lozanov have been released on 30,000 and 15,000 leva bail, respectively.

The pretrial proceeding was instituted after a month ago a partner in the company was prevented from transferring 14 million euro to a foreign bank account. The transaction was suspended by order of the prosecution service.

The charges were announced on November 14 but the authorities declined to name the accused. Media reports said they are two of the three partners in G.P. Group, a major construction company. The two principal partners in the company are Vladimir Zhitenski and Georgi Vassilev, who hold over 95 per cent of the shares. The third partner is Stefan Totev.

G.P. Group became a household name after investigative journalism site Bivol.bg found in an investigative report that it had built an intricate network allowing it to fraudulently spend EU money.

Shortly after the two accused were named, Bivol published details about them in a Facebook post. It says that Lozanov is a former manager and partner in G.P. Group. He is currently owner and manager of the accounting company Consult 09 which handles the entire accounting of G.P. Group. He is partner with the other accused in several companies under the umbrella of G.P. Group.

Vassilev was allegedly involved in unlawful exchange of foreign currency in the early days following the demise of socialism and command economy in Bulgaria. He has permanent residence in Dubai and the 14 million euro wire which the authorities in Bulgaria intercepted, was likely meant for a Dubai account, says Bivol.

The prosecution service said Friday that its probe covered a multitude of projects using funding from various EU-funded programmes, as well as officials from various state institutions and individuals across the country.

Sofia, November 23 (BTA) - The prosecution magistracy Friday named the two persons who have been charged with tax and financial offences in the high-profile G.P.Group case. It said in a statement that Georgi Vassilev and Vladimir Lozanov were charged on October 29 with conspiring to commit tax and financial offences for the purpose of obtaining a particularly large pecuniary benefit between early 2014 and October 7, 2018.

Vassilev also faces money laundering charges.

Vassilev and Lozanov have been released on 30,000 and 15,000 leva bail, respectively.

The pretrial proceeding was instituted after a month ago a partner in the company was prevented from transferring 14 million euro to a foreign bank account. The transaction was suspended by order of the prosecution service.

The charges were announced on November 14 but the authorities declined to name the accused. Media reports said they are two of the three partners in G.P. Group, a major construction company. The two principal partners in the company are Vladimir Zhitenski and Georgi Vassilev, who hold over 95 per cent of the shares. The third partner is Stefan Totev.

G.P. Group became a household name after investigative journalism site Bivol.bg found in an investigative report that it had built an intricate network allowing it to fraudulently spend EU money.

Shortly after the two accused were named, Bivol published details about them in a Facebook post. It says that Lozanov is a former manager and partner in G.P. Group. He is currently owner and manager of the accounting company Consult 09 which handles the entire accounting of G.P. Group. He is partner with the other accused in several companies under the umbrella of G.P. Group.

Vassilev was allegedly involved in unlawful exchange of foreign currency in the early days following the demise of socialism and command economy in Bulgaria. He has permanent residence in Dubai and the 14 million euro wire which the authorities in Bulgaria intercepted, was likely meant for a Dubai account, says Bivol.

The prosecution service said Friday that its probe covered a multitude of projects using funding from various EU-funded programmes, as well as officials from various state institutions and individuals across the country.